'Brutal", "morale sapping", "shocking". Just some of the words used by Telegraph staff to describe the changes sweeping through the once genteel uplands of the last remaining mainstream daily broadsheet as it prepares to move to new offices in Victoria. As the date of the full move draws nearer, with all staff expected to be in situ by the end of next month, the sense of fear and loathing enveloping those still working at its old home in Canary Wharf is becoming all-consuming.

At most newspapers, few eyebrows would be raised if the editor missed afternoon conference. But a single recent non-appearance by acting Daily Telegraph editor in chief John Bryant, owing to heavy traffic, was enough to spark a round of - ultimately false - rumours that he had been fired. Earlier, Sunday Telegraph editor Patience Wheatcroft, lured from the Times earlier this year to replace Sarah Sands, was said to be consulting lawyers over perceived attempts to wrest control of hiring and firing from her. Rumours abounded that Wheatcroft eventually threatened not to come into the office until the situation was satisfactorily resolved. While the Telegraph insists the tale was "nonsense", it is indicative of the febrile atmosphere at its old HQ.

In the meantime 133 staff, including 54 from editorial, are in the process of being made redundant in advance of the move, although management points out that all the money saved is being reinvested in new staff and resources better suited to the 24-hour operation and the brave new multimedia future.

Furious union officials are balloting for strike action. "They are tearing the heart out of this paper and each day that goes by they are doing it more and more," rails John Carey, NUJ father of the chapel.

Telegraph journalists were already demoralised by compulsory redundancies and a general exodus including former deputy editor Neil Darbyshire, foreign editor Alan Philps, comment editor Stephen Robinson and photographic editors Bob Bodrum and Nigel Skelsey. Even Frances Banks, the Daily Telegraph editor's secretary who had been at the company since Charles Moore edited the Sunday paper, was not spared.

The mood of confusion turned to shock and anger last week with the decision of Con Coughlin, the new executive foreign editor who replaced Philps, to stamp his authority on the department by terminating four heavyweight foreign correspondents.

Washington bureau chief Alec Russell, Washington correspondent Francis Harris, New York bureau chief Harry Mount and Paris correspondent Colin Randall were all summarily axed by conference call last Tuesday night. Disgrunted journalists took it as a further sign of management discord. "It's not a question of vendettas or anything else," Coughlin says. "It's about making the foreign operations better." He is expected to hire replacements in the coming weeks.

Coughlin says that the terminations were part of his mandate to radically reorganise the foreign department for the digital future. Curious, then, that none other than Will Lewis, the managing director, editorial, who has masterminded the move to the new headquarters in Victoria as well as securing the paper's digital future, had regularly praised Randall as a reporter who had adapted with flair to the digital world and had created a very popular blog about France. That blog was last week inundated with comments from disgruntled readers. "I think that perhaps them wot rules at the DT are perhaps rather ashamed of their behaviour, and so they bloody well should be," said one.

"There is a lack of recognition that journalism is very much about motivation and morale," said one insider. Others believe that Aidan Barclay, son of Sir David Barclay and chairman of the group, and senior executives bought the view that the Telegraph newsroom was full of stick-in-the-muds who took long lunches and were ripe for culling - a stereotype that those who work there say is long out of date.

When Bryant took over as acting editor last year, replacing Martin Newland, he attempted to galvanise the troops by calling a meeting. While perturbed about the latest editorial change, those present said there was a good response, with impassioned debate about the future direction of the paper. When he held another similar meeting last week to tell reporters that the redundancy process had been completed, only one hand went up. And when asked if he knew the budget for freelancers in the new world, Bryant confessed he had no idea. It was, said those present, indicative of rock-bottom morale and contributed to a general feeling that Bryant is out of the loop.

The problems of recent weeks stem from the influx of big hitters on weighty salaries in the months following Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay's purchase of the newspapers from Conrad Black. Since then, with various senior figures seemingly pulling in different directions, the merry go round has been relentless. Nor should the impact of the redundancies (on top of the 300 announced last year) on departments like marketing, circulation, IT and support services be underestimated.

Coughlin, a respected and admired foreign correspondent for more than 20 years, was himself a victim of the last round of redundancies at the Telegraph group in February and March 2005. Then Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson (later axed to make way for Sands, who in turn gave way to Wheatcroft), selected him for termination. Three months later Lawson himself was out of the Sunday Telegraph and Coughlin was welcomed back to the daily, apparently at the behest of MacLennan.

And yet no one disputes that the Telegraph needed to evolve. The management will argue that the pain will be more intense but shorter lived as they attempt to go from 0-60 in the space of few months. The staff that have already moved to Victoria - so far confined to the Daily Telegraph business section, but many more are on one-week multimedia training courses in preparation - like the flash new premises. They describe the Victoria HQ as a step up from Canary Wharf and even the doubters have been impressed by the polished briefings about the digital future from Lewis. Clearly many millions of pounds have been spent equipping the Telegraph for the multimedia age, and management are confident the staff who remain, and new recruits coming on board, will leave any residual resentment behind in east London.

But mystery still shrouds the integrated multimedia news operation and how it will cater for both print and online with a reduced staff. Will it be Bryant and Wheatcroft calling the shots or Lewis? When competing demands are made by online, print, podcasting and video, who will win? Staff have so far been unable to discern the answer and the positioning of the new offices of the three editorial executives does not provide much of a clue. Wheatcroft has a generous corner office, while Bryant's is at the centre of the floor, but the walls are yet to be constructed. Lewis has an office on the floor above.

Rival newspaper executives watching the Telegraph's grimly gripping soap opera will not be smiling, however, because they too are wondering how to deal with similar changes hurtling towards them at breakneck speed. It is no exaggeration to say that decisions taken today at every newspaper about how far and how fast to integrate could decide the very survival of venerable national brands. There is unrest everywhere, including at this paper where staff recently voted to ballot for strike action.

Such issues were clearly on the mind of Darbyshire, formerly joint deputy editor alongside Lewis, before he was forced aside by yet another MacLennan hiring from Associated, this time Ian MacGregor from the Evening Standard, to be deputy editor. MacGregor has been well received by staff, and also popular is home editor Richard Preston, who has successfully battled against the cuts biting too deep among home news reporters.

Darbyshire recently held his farewell at Davy's pub in Canary Wharf, describing the old Telegraph in his farewell speech as "being like a country club" that anyone could join if they worked hard and were good at what they did.

No one would ever describe the Daily Mail in such relaxed terms, but that is the paper that many think MacLennan, the former managing director of Associated Newspapers, has in his mind as he effects sweeping changes at the Telegraph Group. Those with an eye to history also point to what happened to the Scotsman in the 1990s when it was owned by the Barclays. Then too they appointed an aggressive executive, in this case former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, with a brief to overhaul the papers and blow away the traditionalist culture.

Darbyshire had a stiff and pointed warning for the company he was leaving after years of service. "If the commercial side, or indeed anyone but the editor, begins to set editorial priorities and values, you end up with confusion and drift," he told those gathered. "This should be common sense and I wouldn't mention something so obvious if I didn't think there were one or two in the organisation who appear to have forgotten it. Look at the slide of the Daily Express under its last three proprietors and be very afraid."